Ever heard of Chikungunya? (Can you pronounce it?) The virus has new meaning for our family, since both Josh and Micah contracted the it, via mosquitoes, this month. Josh came down with it Saturday night, May 8th. Micah came down with it Tuesday morning, May 17. According to the CDC, “The most common symptoms of infection are fever and joint pain. Other symptoms may include headache, muscle pain, joint swelling, or rash.” Chikungunya is similar to dengue, but without the danger of dropping platelets. We diagnosed by symptoms. If you want an official diagnosis, you have to have bloodwork processed in Phnom Penh.
Josh had the fever, chills, headache, joint and muscle pain, and the rash. Two weeks later, he’s almost completely symptom free. Micah’s fever started suddenly and continued for three days, ranging from 101 to 103.89 (armpit). Micah had red limbs and swollen toes, diarrhea, and some throwing up. I was in contact with a friend, who is a pediatrician, and kept her updated with Micah’s symptoms. She concluded that Micah was a textbook case of all the symptoms described for Chikungunya in children. Once we confirmed that Micah had Chikungunya, I was quite relieved. We can deal with fevers and discomfort – dealing with unknown sicknesses leaves you wondering. It was a long four days, but by Friday Micah was fever-free and more like himself. He broke out in the “chikungunya rash” on his face on Saturday, but by Tuesday it had cleared up. It was never evident that his rash bothered him, but a few times he seemed to be trying to get to the back of his neck.
Thankful for the recovery of both my men. So thankful that they had mild cases of this virus. I’m so sad when my any of my children gets sick. I cannot tell you how happy I was when Micah’s fever broke! It’s rainy season now and we’ll have to wait another week to see if the mosquitoes pass the virus on to any of the rest of us. For now – we’re being very diligent in killing mosquitoes and have sprayed the dark areas in our house.
In other news, Ezra fell down some stairs on Friday. No one saw it and he had his moto helmet on. He recovered pretty quickly.
